Sea Change funding

22/10/08 Sea Change Funding - DCMS

Over £4.5 million will be handed out to 12 English seaside towns in the latest round of funding from the Government's Sea Change programme, which aims to reinvigorate our much-loved resorts by investment in culture and heritage. Restored promenades; spectacular beach-front redesigns and new exhibition spaces will enhance the local environment and help boost visitor numbers around the coastline.

Projects from all around the English coast will benefit from the investment, Culture and Tourism Minister Barbara Follett confirmed. The successful schemes were judged to be innovative and aspirational, and will provide long term benefit to the public, with priority given to areas of high deprivation.

A £1 million grant for Berwick-upon-Tweed will help restore the iconic 18th century Dewar's Lane Granary building as an exhibition space and youth hostel. Bexhill-on-Sea will also receive £1 million to continue the next stage of their successful seafront improvement scheme, and a £480,800 grant for Littlehampton will help with major design-led improvements along the seafront. A further nine projects will also receive funding.

Barbara Follett, Culture and Tourism Minister, said: "I'm delighted that a further 12 seaside resorts will benefit from the Sea Change scheme. The plans put forward are great examples of how investing in our culture and heritage can regenerate our seaside communities.

"I'm pleased that so many seaside resorts around the country have embraced the chance to get involved in the first year of this programme. I hope it will continue to be successful, helping to restore pride in our communities and boost visitor numbers to our much loved coastline."

This is the second tranche of grants to be awarded in the first year of the £45 million, three-year DCMS-funded programme, being led by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE). In August, the first large grant awards were confirmed for Blackpool, Torbay and Dover. The funding announced today is for the smaller open application grants which can be up to £1 million.

CABE Chief Executive Richard Simmons, commenting on behalf of the Sea Change partnership said: "We are pleased to have had applications from such a diverse range of resorts, all with their own character- from the northern borders to the south coast. What all the projects share is a desire to use the combination of culture and good design as a catalyst for regeneration. From Boscombe to Berwick, resorts are recapturing their innovation and creativity and will hopefully inspire many others to follow."

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